“Nothing short of a fire will get you out of this room until I’m done with you.”
So he was holding me hostage. Even though I stood my ground, stubbornly turning my back to him, my heart raced excitedly as I glazed over the variety of surfaces that begged for some tender, love, and sex.
Damn it, I was still mad at him but I couldn’t stop my traitorous body from responding to his like we were made for each other. Drawing the same breath. Feeling the electricity when he turned me back to face him. Gazes molten with carnal need.
“I missed you last night,” he said, his voice low and sultry. “I forgot how lonely the bed is without you.”
I shrugged his hands off, regaining control and kicking the desire to the backseat. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Try and be romantic and sweet after what you did.”
He locked his jaw. “Rachel and I...that feels like a million years ago. She means nothing to me anymore.”
I flicked my hair over my shoulder angrily. “Nothing to you ‘anymore’--so you’re admitting that she did mean something to you. Admitting that you lied to me when you made it seem like it was strictly a sex situation.”
His body tightened defensively. “I think ‘lie’ is a very strong word.”
“What words would be accurate?”
“I may have just...left out the entire truth.”
Was he being serious? “I’m pretty sure not telling the whole truth is the definition of lying. When I did it, you had the right to be angry but when you do it, it’s in the past and I should get over it.”
“The situations are not the same and you know it,” he said tersely. “Rachel and I dated over a year ago and yes, we were close and things got said. But that was long before I even knew you existed. I was very much in the picture when you...” He stopped abruptly, pinching the bridge of his nose and inhaling, exhaling before continuing. “What you did doesn’t matter because I forgave you. Another key difference.”
“You think I like this?” I said shrilly, feeling the fight drain from me. “That I don’t want to just say that it doesn’t matter? I don’t care that you dated people before me. It’s that you loved her, Jacob. You were serious about her and you lied about it.”
“I’m sorry that I wasn’t honest, but I had my reasons.”
I put my hand on my hip, not letting him off that easy. “I’m listening.”
He stroked his chin then winced like he’d just thrown back a shot. “It’s complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it.”
His eyes settled on me and for the briefest moment, I saw a retort ripple there but he surrendered with a sigh. “I told you how we were together right after my dad died. I was a f**king mess--I’d spent years hating the man, remembering all the things he’d missed, all the things he might as well have been absent for because he made it no secret that he longed to live another life. A life with Allegra.”
I remembered the story. Carlton Whitmore falling for a local girl while filming a movie in Italy and pursuing her relentlessly--despite the fact that he had a wife and son back in the states. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’d brought Jacob to Italy, playing house with Allegra until she got tired of living a lie. If things were bad for Jacob and Alicia before, they were intolerable after Carlton lost her.
“She told me she loved me and I froze, remembering my mother and father,” Jacob continued. “I replayed how she’d say the words and he’d crush her with silence or a pity kiss or some obscenely expensive piece of jewelry. I didn’t love Rachel, Leila. But that hopeful look in her eyes…I couldn’t stomp that light out. I couldn’t hurt her. So I said it back.”
“You didn’t love her,” I said slowly, peering at him uneasily.
He shook his head. “I liked her. Even back then she could be a little much, but I enjoyed her company. But love? No.” He came closer and I didn’t dare move. Not when the truth was still sinking in and this unbearable weight was lifting. I wasn’t the fainting type, but I felt light headed, so overwhelmed that I had to order my body to breathe.
“Are you okay?” he said, studying me intently.
I was so much better than okay, but I still didn’t understand why he couldn’t tell me that. “Before, when you told me about Rachel, why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”
“Because I knew I was falling for you,” he answered, his voice as soft as a caress. “And I didn’t want you to know I lied about love before because when I said it to you, I didn’t want you to think that I didn’t mean it. I didn’t want you to doubt that you mean everything to me.” He reached for me, interlocking his fingers with mine. He looked down at our hands, slowly closing his fingers and pulling me toward him. “I promise you, I’ll never love anyone else. Can you handle that, Leila? Can you give me forever?”
****
I couldn’t ignore the fluttering inside me at his words. Forever? With Jacob? The answer was a resounding yes.
As his eyes washed over me, like it had been months instead of hours since we'd been this close, I felt like the dumbest girl alive. All the reasons I'd gripped to explain why I ran didn't hold water to this. This pull between his skin and my skin. His bones and my bones.
I dropped my gaze guiltily. "I shouldn't have left. I should have let you explain."
"No, you shouldn't have," he replied, tipping my chin back up. His voice deepened. "And you'll be punished. But not before you beg for it."
My eyes trailed hungrily over his broad shoulders, my mouth watering in anticipation of running my fingers up and down his abdomen. When I made my way back to his face, settling on the upturned curve of his lips, I knew I was dangerously close to bending over the counter and letting him spank me right there in the coffee shop.
Just hold it together long enough to get back to the office, I told myself before clearing my throat and gesturing at the door. “Maybe we could finish this conversation upstairs.”
He didn’t move from where he stood. “I own every square inch of this building.” His eyes coursed over my body, bringing every last erotic nerve alive. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“But...” I trailed off softly, not sure I was following. “I thought...you and I...” My cheeks blushed furiously like I couldn’t put words to something that Jacob and I had done so many times I’d lost count. Like I wasn’t intimately familiar with the way he could make me melt with a look or just by dropping his tone to the low, bedroom timbre that brought me under his spell.